Such Is Life
by floss bucket
Summary: Arthur had not seen Merlin in over four months, not since the other man had fled Camelot. Arthur may have been accepting of Merlin, but will Uther feel the same way when Merlin returns? No slash, but have tissues ready. There's no happy ending here.


Such Is Life

Arthur had not seen Merlin in over four months, not since the other man had fled Camelot. Merlin hadn't wanted to flee – he'd wanted to stay with Arthur – but the Prince had ordered it. The alternative was far too horrible to contemplate.

As he thought of his former servant, Arthur's mind drifted back to the day Merlin had left. The memory was still fresh in his mind; he had relived it every day for the past four months.

_It had been a beautiful day in late summer. So beautiful that it seemed unreal, and all day Arthur had been expecting something to go wrong. No day could be this perfect. He was right, as it turned out. Something did go wrong. Something went terribly, terribly wrong._

_Arthur had been training with his knights in the fields outside Camelot, with Merlin there to fetch arrows, carry water and be a general dogsbody. The Prince had not been worried about safety – after all, he was surrounded by the best in Camelot._

_About an hour into the training session, however, strange things started to happen. Clouds covered the sun – slowly at first, but within twenty minutes the sky was a dark, ominous grey. Shortly after that, the paralysation began. Arthur, Merlin and the knights lost all feeling and control below the neck. They were helpless._

_Arthur's mind was working frantically, trying to figure out _what_ had happened, _who_ had done it and how the hell they were going to get out of this. As he was thinking, a young man, no older than twenty five, appeared in front of him._

"_Arthur Pendragon," he said in a dangerous, silky voice, "How lovely it is to see you helpless."_

_He had white-blond hair and steely grey eyes, and his face shape looked strangely familiar. Arthur was trying to place it when the man spoke again._

"_You look almost as helpless as my sister when you watched her burn last week. She was innocent, and you let her die."_

_Arthur remembered now; the girl had been seventeen years old and had been found with magical items in her room. Uther had sentenced her to death with no trial, declaring the evidence to be enough to convict her. Arthur had asked his father to at least give her the mercy of a trial, but the King had refused. When it came to magic, Uther saw no sense._

_Arthur, however, had been thinking differently for a while. Ever since he had realised his manservant was a sorcerer and had been saving his life. Merlin wasn't evil, so magic couldn't be evil. Arthur's logic led him to the conclusion that magic was merely a weapon that could be used for good or evil, just like a sword._

_Since he had realised that, Arthur had been keeping Merlin's secret and trying to persuade his father that magic wasn't that bad. The former was going quite well – even Merlin didn't realise Arthur knew – but Arthur was having a few problems with the latter. Uther just didn't listen._

_The blond man was still speaking, and Arthur tuned in again. "_I_ was the sorcerer. Those were _my_ things in her room. And she was the one who was burned to death. But you know what? We're both guilty. And will both pay for our mistakes. Prepare to die, Arthur Pendragon."_

_Arthur was scared now. This man was insane and was going to kill the both of them. And unlike all the other times Arthur had faced death, Merlin couldn't protect him now. Not without everyone finding out about him magic. Arthur hoped that Merlin had the good sense not to use magic, but he knew his manservant would save him._

_Part of him was relieved that he wouldn't die today, but he hated that part. If he survived, his father would have Merlin executed, and Arthur didn't think he would be able to cope with that._

_The sorcerer was chanting something now, and a glowing ball of light was developing between his outstretched hands. It grew and grew until it was as wide as a man was tall. Arthur closed his eyes – the only action he could still perform – in preparation for death._

_But no death came. When Arthur hesitantly opened his eyes after about ten seconds, he realised he was no longer paralysed. Neither was anyone else for that matter. In fact, the only person who seemed in a bad way was the sorcerer. He was lying flat on his back, burnt to a crisp._

_Arthur barely spared him a glance, choosing instead to stand up and check on Merlin. The younger man was standing a few metres away, had outstretched and surrounded by sword points. His eyes still contains the remnants of gold, but his shoulders were slumped and he looked defeated. He knew as well as Arthur that this was it._

_The Prince walked over to the circle and asked "What happened?" even though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer._

_One of the knights, Sir Kay, turned to the Prince and replied, "He did magic, sire. He raised some sort of barrier around the other sorcerer, which stopped the explosion from reaching us."_

_Arthur listened, but his eyes only found Merlin's. The warlock had a look of guilt in his face, but Arthur could tell it was about the lies Merlin had told, rather than his magic. _

"_Well, Merlin, I have to thank you for saving my life," _again_, added Arthur silently, "but I'm afraid you have to leave."_

"_Leave?" questioned Merlin and several of the knights._

"_Sire, he used magic! We need to take him back to the King," said Sir Kay._

"_No," said Arthur, before directly addressing Merlin again, "You will leave Camelot now, and if you return while my father is still King, there will be nothing I can do to save you. Now go."_

"_Go!" he repeated loudly when Merlin refused to move. That seemed to jolt the younger man into attention, and giving Arthur one last grateful look, he turned and ran into the woods._

"_I'll have to tell your father about this, sire," said Sir Bedevere, the most senior knight now that Leon was temporarily incapacitated from the fight with the dragon._

"_Tell him what you want," said Arthur, walking back to the castle, "At least I've still got my conscience clean."_

Bedevere had indeed told the King what had happened, and Uther had been very angry. Had anyone else done what Arthur had, they would have been executed for it. Arthur still had to cope with two weeks in the dungeons and twenty strokes of the whip. Four months later, the scars had still not fully healed, and occasionally caused him pain.

Arthur's relationship with his father had also become very tense. Uther had obviously realised that Arthur was one of those magic sympathisers, and dealt with it by avoiding his son. However, he did make a point of informing Arthur on how the search for Merlin was going, which was why Arthur was so nervous.

The knights, led by Sir Bedevere not that Arthur was 'untrustworthy', had found a strong lead to Merlin's whereabouts. A party had left two days ago to investigate, and Arthur feared that this time they would be successful.

His fears were confirmed when Sir Kay entered his room with a triumphant smirk on his face.

"The King has summoned to you the throne room," he said, "We found him." And then with one last smirk at Arthur, he left the room.

Fuck, though Arthur. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

They had found Merlin and Merlin was going to die. And Arthur wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it. With that heavy weight in his heart, Arthur reluctantly left his room and made his way to the throne room.

Everyone was already there when he arrived, the knights, the nobles, and even the servants. And there, standing in the middle, was Merlin.

The warlock's hair was longer and not very clean, and his clothes were filthy. He was thinner too, and looked unbelievably pitiful. Yet he stood straight at looked Uther straight in the eye.

The King did not return the favour, choosing instead to greet his son. "Good to see you've decided to join us, Arthur. As you can see, we have a visitor." Uther wore the same smirk the Kay had, the same smirk that was really starting to annoy Arthur.

"The word 'visitor' implies that he came here willingly, father," said Arthur flatly, "I think we both know that's not the case."

"In fact," said Uther, smirk growing wider still, "he was found within the walls of Camelot. Either he's unbelievably stupid or he wanted one more chance at revenge."

"Have you ever considered an alternative to magic being evil, your Majesty?" asked Merlin. His voice was hoarse, but not biting, or even rude, as everyone had expected. He was simply quietly questioning the King. "Have you ever considered that maybe I was doing what I have done for the past two years: serving Camelot."

He turned around to look at Arthur now, and the Prince noticed that despite Merlin's words, his eyes were resigned to the fact that he was going to die. The warlock started speaking again. "I made you a promise, Arthur, that I would serve you until I died. I have not broken that promise, nor do I intend to." Merlin gave Arthur a small, sad, smile, before turning back to Uther.

"Your Majesty, my loyalty always has been, and always will be, towards Arthur, towards Camelot, and towards you. If you allow it, I will continue to serve Camelot and the Pendragons until I am no longer able. It's your choice"

Arthur hoped with all his heart that his father would listen to Merlin's words and let the warlock walk free, but Uther's face was hard when he spoke. "I have no reason to trust a sorcerer. You will be executed at dawn. Take him away."

Merlin's head dropped in defeat, and a single tear slipped down his cheek, just like they were slipping down Gaius's and Arthur's. But just as the guards grabbed his arms and began to drag him away, he raised his head and said in a resigned voice, to nobody in particular. "Such is life."

_They burned Merlin the next morning, in a silent ceremony. The warlock did not scream, and nobody cheered. Not this time._

_The Prince was not in attendance at the execution. He had locked himself in his chambers the night before, after being dismissed from the throne room. Several people claimed to have seen him looking out of his window during the execution. They were the last people to see him alive._

**Sorry for the sad ending… Hope you liked it anyway!! Please review, and there are cookies and a shirtless Bradley for anyone who can tell me where the quote 'Such is life' is from WITHOUT using Google!!!**

**Just to clear something up, Leon is not dead! According to an interview with the producers or directors, they're bringing him back because he had such a large fanbase! :D**

**One last thing, please go and read the story SOS: Save Our Ship which is posted on my profile. It is a satire playing off the weirdest ships my friend and I could think of. Although it may sound like a crack fic, we put in a lot of effort to make it well written, so please give it a go! It's a Merlin/Harry Potter cross over.**

**Thank you for reading, and please please review! New chapter for Happily Ever After will be up this weekend! (hopefully)**


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